As wireless mobile device networks such as mobile phone networks have advanced, more applications and services have been made available over the networks, including applications and services that are increasingly bandwidth intensive. For example, streaming of media content to mobile devices by way of wireless mobile device networks has become commonplace.
Streaming of media content is often accomplished by unicast streaming of the media content. Unicast streaming of media content requires establishment of a unicast connection between a media streaming server and each mobile device to which the media content is streamed. This requirement persists even when the server is streaming the same media content (e.g., the same media content program) to the mobile devices. Consequently, when concurrent demand for particular media content increases and causes the number of unicast connections to increase to satisfy the demand, the resources of the streaming server and the wireless mobile device network can be strained to the point that the quality of services provided over the wireless mobile device network may be adversely affected. Of particular concern are “usage spikes”—periods of time during which there are significant increases in network traffic. Usage spikes, which may be localized or network-wide, may have a variety of causes, including, for example, a large event (e.g., a sporting event or a breaking news event) that leads to a spike in concurrent demand for particular media content. Usage spikes can be debilitating to a wireless mobile device network. In some situations, for example, a usage spike may unintentionally block or otherwise impede, delay, or degrade communications and/or delivery of services over the network.